This past week Monday through Wednesday (May 20-22), Rev. Kleyn and Rev. Smit traveled to Southern Negros Occidental for their monthly classes (SNO) with the group of pastors there. However this month they stayed an extra day and delivered the same conference speeches on God's Sovereignty that they gave here in Manila last month. Although the SNO classes are held in Sipalay, the conference was held in a church in Hinoba-an, a town a few miles south of Sipalay. Pastor Jonathon Barroca, who attends SNO, is the pastor of that church.

Entering the town

The church where the conference was held on Tuesday

Rev. Smit beginning the conference

The audience - 12 pastors and 1 elder and 1 member attended.

The pastors we are working with also asked friends and acquaintances from the area

to attend the conference.

Snack time

Singing

(For those who get this in your email, you will have to go to the blog itself to see the video.)

Time for fellowship

The ladies and young people who helped with the food

Lunch time. The two silver bowls are fish (boiled) the two other dishes are lechon baboy or roasted pig. This is a famous Filipino dish, where the whole pig is roasted over an open fire. Rev. Kleyn said it was delicious.

The attendees were given a free copy of Rev. Smit's new book, "The Fruit of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."

More fellowship

Group picture

Pastor Rosal ready to head home for the day

The SNO classes were held Monday evening and Wednesday morning. These are the classes that are held once every month. Rev. Smit teaches Dogmatics, and Rev. Kleyn provides instruction in Reformed Church Government. The men pictured above are as follows: Front: Bro. Alfredo Ladeca, Pastor Ariel Labrador, Pastor Jonathon Barroca, Pastor Rodolfo de la Cruz. Middle: Pastor Ezequias Rosal, Pastor Eduardo Donasco, Pastor Michael Mayang.

Once again some literature was sold and God's word was spread to more contacts. Pray that God will use the work for His purposes.

May 13 is Election Day for the Senators and Representatives. There is a lot of campaigning going on - posters, tv ads, speeches and rallies. Another unique way of campaigning is with vehicles sporting banners and often very large speakers which play the campaign song of that particular politician. A couple of Sundays ago, when we were in the First Reformed Church of Bulacan, many of these campaign vehicles were going past on the street outside the church. A few times Rev. Kleyn had to pause in his preaching because of the noise. Thankfully though, most of the vehicles went past while we were eating lunch. We were told the vehicles were heading to a rally at a nearby school where there would be a lot of handouts and speeches given. Here's a short video we shot.

The other day on the way to Faith Academy to pick up the Smit children from school we videoed the vehicle we were following.

Next Monday is election day. After that everything will hopefully be quieter and return to normal for another three years!